Batehaven man, Mick O'Malley, has described the 2019 Variety B to B Bash as "one of the best he's done" as he and his two daughters, Karly and Laura, arrived at the finish line in Port Douglas on Monday, July 5.
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This completed a 4300 kilometre journey that started in Bondia, with stops at Singleton, Inverell, Miles, Emerald, Hughenden, Georgetown, Karumba, Chillagoe, and Port Douglas.
Speaking to the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner on Tuesday, Mr O'Malley said this bash had been unique.
"We've finished now, and we've got the finale dinner tonight," he said. "They'll announce various awards, and people will get a chance to let their hair down.
"We had two finishing lines this year. We had the typical finishing arch when we arrived in Port Douglas, but we also had an arch that was weighted under the water for our cruise out to Batt Reef.
"The bash has been a great one. We've covered a lot of distance, and the mix of roads has been really good.
"We had a couple of minor things with the car, but she held up alright."
Mr O'Malley said it was special being able to experience the bash with his two daughters.
"The girls and I got on well, and I got to hear some modern music I hadn't heard along the way," he said. "The was no swearing or arguments, and we're definitely closer for the journey.
"They're both down in Melboune, so I get to chat with them every now and again, but having that time with them, we talked about a lot of stuff we usually wouldn't.
"There was the occasional gender stereotyping from some of the older men on the bash, but overall I got positive comments about my girls, and I think it inspired other people to try and get their kids and grandkids involved."
Mr O'Malley said he was thoroughly sick of driving after 10 days in the car, and would bring the car back on the railway rather than driving back
"We headed off from Emerald for our biggest day, but there were some big storm clouds rolling in when we got to our lunch stop," he said. "They held us up because a few of the other drivers had spin outs down the track.
"There aren't a lot of tarred north-south roads in that part of the country, so we had to do a 300-kilometre detour to the west.
"We'd had 12 hours in the car by the time we got to Winton, so we decided to stop there overnight.
"We had another 12-hour day the next day, so it started to become a bit tiresome. We've all had enough now, so we're just driving back to Cairns, and then flying home."
